Describing US-India relationship as worst in last three decades, Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna on Monday said even external affairs minister S Jaishankar would back the same. California Democrat Khanna attributed US President Trump's as the sole reason for the alleged disruption in ties.
Addressing the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum Leadership Summit in Washington, Khanna on Monday claimed that during his recent visit to China, India's ambassador there had told him that a generation of trust was lost due to Trump's policies.
"Now, you know I'm not one to mince words. I sort of tell things as they are. The US-India relationship has been at its lowest point in the last 30 years," Khanna said.
"Trump's policies of getting into a war with Iran have been utterly destructive. It has been utterly destructive to the prices of gas in India. Talk to [external affairs minister] Jaishankar if you don't believe me," he said.
"I was in China, and the Indian Ambassador there told me that a generation of trust has been lost by President Trump. If we don't speak the truth about the damage this President has done...we are not living in reality," Khanna added.
{{/usCountry}}"I was in China, and the Indian Ambassador there told me that a generation of trust has been lost by President Trump. If we don't speak the truth about the damage this President has done...we are not living in reality," Khanna added.
{{/usCountry}}The relationship between India and the US has been impacted by the imposition of tariffs by President Donald Trump last year, who cited New Delhi's Russian oil purchases as the primary reason for the duties on Indian goods entering the United States.
'An America that has forgotten moral vision'
He slammed Trump's policies of threatening Iran and Cuba and conquering Greenland, saying that under the US President, America has a “foreign policy of might makes right.”
"Now you have an America that has forgotten that moral vision, that has a foreign policy of might makes right, threatening not just Iran, threatening Cuba, threatening to conquer Greenland, and we were having dinner as if everything is normal," Khanna said.
"Who cares about the partnerships of this and that when this President is literally destroying America's leadership in the entire world," he said.
"The demagoguery about immigrants, the demagoguery of this President and talking about the lack of immigrants coming into the United States. How can we sit here and not condemn his policies on what he has done with student visas, with the demonisation of talent coming to the United States," Khanna added.
The Democratic leader said Trump talks about the US leading in the field of artificial intelligence but 38 per cent of the top AI researches are of Chinese origin.
"Thirty-eight per cent of the top AI researchers are of Chinese origin. 72 per cent have foreign degrees. This is a President who doesn't understand that we need to be recruiting talent, not turning talent away," Khanna said.
Describing Trump as a “lame duck”, Khanna asserted that the Democrats were going to win the upcoming mid-term elections and the 2028 presidential elections decisively.